Tag Archives: RCMP

Forests, Indigenous Nations, Justice

The Last stand: Fairy Creek

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Port Renfrew, BC – After over a decade of documenting B.C.’s last remaining old-growth ecosystems, TJ Watt said he hadn’t come across anything quite like the grove of red cedars hidden in the upper reaches of the Caycuse watershed, near Port Renfrew.

“It was truthfully one of the most stunning old-growth forests I’ve been in,” said the co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The sheer volume of giant cedars was mind-blowing – every direction you looked was another 10 to 12-foot-wide ancient cedar that could be 800 years old, or older.”

When he returned later that year in 2020, only their stumps remained.

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Forests

Horgan’s new forestry plan inflames old-growth fire

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environmental groups already riled by the pace of protections for ancient forests in B.C. were further provoked after the province failed to announce any new old-growth logging deferrals in its new vision for forestry Tuesday.

“If Premier John Horgan’s intention is to make the conflict raging around old-growth forests even worse, this is the perfect plan to do that,” said Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee.

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Forests

Photo of Old Growth tree on a truck goes viral

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. government is misleading the public when it suggests the massive old-growth tree on a truck that has created a social media storm wouldn’t be logged today, says a conservationist group.

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Forests, Indigenous Nations, Justice

Chainsaws, tree sits & arrests at Fairy Creek

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tensions are escalating at old-growth blockades on Vancouver Island as chainsaws reportedly started up in the Caycuse region Friday and a clash between protesters and police the day before was posted to social media.

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Forests, Justice

The arrests begin at Fairy Creek

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Five people involved with the Fairy Creek old-growth blockade in a remote region of southwestern Vancouver Island were arrested Tuesday.

The arrests are the first as RCMP enforced a court injunction against protesters who have spent nearly nine months blocking logging company Teal-Jones’ access to various stands of old-growth forest in tree farm licence (TFL) 46 near Port Renfrew.

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